The Cruel Mother
THE CRUEL MOTHER—D
[_]
a. Kinloch's MSS, v, 103, in the handwriting of James
Beattie. b. Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 46: from
the recitation of Miss C. Beattie.
1
There lives a lady in London,
All alone and alone ee
She's gane wi bairn to the clerk's son.
Down by the green wood sae bonnie
2
She's taen her mantle her about,
She's gane aff to the gude green wood.
3
She's set her back untill an oak,
First it bowed and then it broke.
4
She's set her back untill a tree,
Bonny were the twa boys she did bear.
5
But she took out a little pen-knife,
And she parted them and their sweet life.
6
She's aff untill her father's ha;
She was the lealest maiden that was amang them a'.
7
As she lookit oure the castle wa,
She spied twa bonnie boys playing at the ba.
8
‘O if these two babes were mine,
They should wear the silk and the sabelline!’
9
‘O mother dear, when we were thine,
We neither wore the silks nor the sabelline.
10
‘But out ye took a little pen-knife,
And ye parted us and our sweet life.
11
‘But now we're in the heavens hie,
And ye've the pains o hell to drie.’
